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Festive foods just don’t weigh up

The annual inspection of Christmas foods by South Australia’s Office of Consumer and Business Affairs has uncovered more than 150 different items that don’t weigh up.

Christmas puddings, cakes, boxed chocolates, confectionery and seafood were among items found to be underweight.

Minister for Consumer Affairs Gail Gago says the annual checks are important to make sure that consumers buying Christmas foods are getting the quantity they’re paying for.

Trade Measurement inspectors from the Office of Consumer and Business Affairs (OCBA) inspected more than 3800 different products, focusing on items that are popular during the Christmas season such as turkeys, hams, puddings and also alcohol.

Around 150 retailers were visited including supermarkets, variety stores, department stores, wholesalers, bakeries and seafood premises.

“This year the sweet treats were the main culprits for being underweight or not labelled correctly, with a few problems found with prawns as well as wine labelling,” Minister Gago says.

The largest discrepancy was found with a kilo pack of prawns that was almost 90 grams underweight. The traditional turkey, hams and bakery items were found to be correct weight with no labelling concerns.

Nine traders have been issued with warning letters and ordered to remove the underweight items from shelves, although one trader was granted permission to re-label a chocolate product with a store notice and reduce the price to compensate for the lesser quantity. Six traders have been referred for further investigated for possible breaches of the Trade Measurement Act.

Follow up visits will be conducted to make sure that the traders are not continuing to sell short-weight or incorrectly labelled products, and repeat offenders risk prosecution and a maximum fine of $20,000 under the Trade Measurement Act 1993.

Consumers in South Australia with concerns about the weight or labelling of Christmas products can call OCBA’s Trade Measurement unit on 8234 2036, or 131 882 for country callers.

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